5.  The applicant was born in 1969 and is serving a sentence of life imprisonment in Bulgaria.
The criminal proceedings against the applicant
6.  In the early hours of 7 October 1993 a taxi driver was murdered and his car was stolen. The applicant was arrested by the police on the same morning while cleaning the taxicab from blood stains. A preliminary investigation for murder was opened against the applicant on the same day.
7.  The preliminary investigation lasted from 7 October 1993 to 10 February 1994 during which period the investigation authorities questioned on several occasions the applicant and various witnesses, conducted crime scene experiments and commissioned a number of expert reports such as a medical, fingerprint, economic, psychiatric, chemical and compound-analysis report.
8.  The findings of the preliminary investigation were presented to the applicant on 7 March 1994.
9.  An indictment was submitted to the Sofia City Court on 22 June 1994 against the applicant for the murder of the taxi driver and for the theft of the taxicab and several items from another individual.
10.  The Sofia City Court conducted eight hearings between 2 November 1994 and 12 March 1996. The victim's son joined the proceedings as civil claimant. In the course of the proceedings, the court examined the applicant and various witnesses, some of which were foreign language speaking, and commissioned several expert reports, such as a physicochemical, chemical, ballistics, psychiatric and economic. One of the members of the court's panel was changed midway in the proceedings which led to a rehearing of the case, as well as a re-examination of witnesses and experts. There were also unsuccessful attempts to locate two witnesses who had left the country in 1993.
11.  In a judgment of 12 March 1996 the Sofia City Court found the applicant guilty of premeditated murder with hooligan motives, committed with extreme viciousness and in a manner particularly cruel to the victim, as well as of the theft of the taxicab and several items from another individual. The court imposed the death penalty as joint punishment for the offences and ordered the applicant to pay damages to the victim's family.
12.  The applicant appealed against the above judgment on 14 March 1996 arguing that the Sofia City Court had wrongly applied the law, that the facts were inconclusive and that the sentence was unjustified. His appeal was forwarded to the second-instance court more than a year later on 14 April 1997.
13.  The Supreme Court of Cassation conducted three hearings between 13 June 1997 and 12 March 1998.
14.  In a judgment of 17 April 1998 the Supreme Court of Cassation upheld the first-instance court's judgment, but reduced the sentence to life imprisonment as it found it to be more lenient for the applicant. In reaching its decision, the court re-examined all the evidence before it and addressed the arguments of the applicant.
15.  On 25 May 1998 the applicant filed a petition for review (cassation appeal) essentially repeating his arguments before the second-instance court.
16.  Of the six hearings held before the extended panel of the Supreme Court of Cassation between 16 December 1998 and 19 February 2001 three were adjourned at the applicant's request.
17.  In a final judgment of 12 March 2001 the extended panel of the Supreme Court of Cassation dismissed the applicant's appeal and upheld the lower-courts' judgements. In reaching its decision, the court concurred with the findings of the lower courts, found them to be supported by the evidence in the case and to be well reasoned, and dismissed the applicant's arguments as unsubstantiated.